Monday, 24 April 2017

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!"
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Los Angeles’ Silversun Pickups will be headlining First Avenue tomorrow.

We recently caught Silversun Pickups in May 2016 with Foals, and wrote, “This alternative rock band from Los Angeles has been around for a while and seem to finally be getting the recognition they deserve. They released Better Nature last year and played a lot of songs off of that but did not forget about their three previous releases.”

Norwegian singer Sondre Lerche (currently based in New York City) will be stopping by the 7th Street Entry tomorrow (April 25th), touring in support of his eighth studio album Pleasure (PLZ label).
The new record is the followup to Lerche’s “divorce” album from Mona Fastwold.

We previously caught Lerche in New York in 2014 and wrote, “The crowd seemed to be quite enthusiastic, which Lerche most definitely fed off of and gave the audience several opportunities to sing along. Combining both older songs like “Sleep on Needles,” and “Two Way Monologue” with new songs from the just-released album like “Bad Law”
and “Legends”, the crowd got to revel in the oldies and enjoy the experiencing the new material live.”

Brooklyn's Beacon was a big buzz last night, having talked to a few fans that came out just to see them last night. This beats duo (Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett) just recently signed to Ghostly International
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Other shows in the area:

04/26/17
Hari Kondabolu and Raghav Mehta will be playing the Cedar Cultural Center.
$20.

04/26/17
Rookie Of The Year and City Under Siege will be at Triple Rock Social Club.
$12.

04/27/17
The Suburbs’ sold-out show at the Turf Club is this Thursday.
$30/Sold Out.

04/27/17
Tycho returns to Minnesota, over at the new Palace Theatre. New York electro duo Beacon will be opening up the show. Both Beacon and Tycho came to town in 2015 and we noted, “Opening up the show was Beacon, a duo (Thomas Mullarney III and Jacob Gossett) from Brooklyn, New York, playing some tracks from L1 EP (Ghostly International) to near darkness with a custom film, projected onto the band. We've seen the electronic duo before, last December 2012, and I wrote that they had "big buzz." While at the time, I said they were 'thunderous rap bass', they seem to have taken it down a notch to more minimalistic and atmospheric.... at least based on hearing them perform on Sunday.”
$29.50.

04/28/17
Bishop Briggs is headlining Fine Line Music Café. The show is sold out.
Sold Out.

04/28/17
The Florists’ EP release show is at Triple Rock Social Club.
$5.

04/28/17
The xx has a sold out show at the new Palace Theatre in St Paul. The trio’s third album I See You debut at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US album charts.
The last time we saw the xx, it was in 2012 and we said, “The xx show was a little somber, with flashing lights at the appropriate beats. I was expecting more dancing from the audience, but for the most part, they kept very still. Which is cool, as someone pointed out that it was nice to see people actually listening and watching the show on stage.”
Sampha to open.
$49.50.

We caught Bayside last September 2015 and wrote that it was “Absolute perfection”.

The American rock band is currently back on tour in support of their seventh studio album Vancancy, available now on Hopeless Records in North America.

Singer/guitar player Anthony Raneri (who recently move to Nashville) tells the story of his his marriage and finding himself alone in Nashville: “The hotel on the album cover reflects the feelings I had while working on Vacancy. Writing this album, I felt as if everything was uncertain, I could move back to New York, buy a house in Nashville… I just didn’t know what was going to come next. I felt very isolated and as if everything in my life was temporary at that moment.”

Oxford’s A Silent Film is back in the USA, touring in support of their new album Sand & Snow.

We previously caught the band on their first visit in 2013 and again last October 2015 and wrote, “Oxford, UK band A Silent Film has pared down to a duo since we last saw them, bringing a fellow Oxford resident on bass and two Americans, on tour to play with them....
As a result, the band is in the midst of a rebirth of sorts themselves, and as evidenced by their newest and self-titled full-length.”

Cult indie rock band Guided by Voices will be headlining First Avenue next Wednesday, August 31st, in support of Please Be Honest.

Broncho will open the show. We’ve previously seen the band early in their career, in 2014 and 2013, and have written that this is a very lucky band to have been on tour with Billy Idol and now with GBV.

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!"
…

"Are you ready? Because you don't sound f****ing ready!," yelled Foals' singer Yannis Philippakis as he worked the crowd. Foals rocked hard at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night to a group of young British rock music fans. …

The Foals and Silversun Pickups tour just recently stopped by the Myth Nightclub in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Joywave

New York’s Joywave was the first band to play Thursday night. They seemed comfortable with their newly gained, but much deserved, popularity as they played through a quick thirty-minute set.

Daniel Armbuster (the singer) had a personality that shined as he joked around with the crowd. The banner behind the drumkit said something to the extent of "due to circumstances out of our control, Joywave will not be headlining tonight". Not only could you see it written on the banner, Daniel made it a point to inform the crowd that they were not headlining and only had a 30-minute set.

Joywave played a handful of songs off of their debut album How Do You Feel Now? and their new release Swish which is an exclusive and unique digital release that features an unreleased bonus track.

Joywave ended with their hit song "Destruction". After playing through the song once, Armbuster informed the crowd that their contract states they do not have to leave the show until they feel the crowd has been satisfied so they started "Destruction" for a second time and played it again.

Foals

English indie rock band, Foals was the second band to play and their live show was so full of energy that I was blown away. Prior to walking on stage, the room went dark and then the crowd was hit with bright lights and nonstop strobe lights while an ambient track played. When the members of Foals were finally spotted entering the stage, the crowd started cheering. When the first song started, the crowd seemed to go silent as to appreciate the music that was being performed.

Foals' music sounds way different live than it does on recordings. When they play live, the music has this sort of intensity that is lost in the recordings. Singer Yannis Philippakis had an extremely powerful and raw sounding voice throughout the set. It was powerful and perfect even when he decided to jump into the crowd. He was quickly swallowed up by fans as he tried to make his way back up to the stage after wandering around and crowd surfing for a little bit.

Brian Aubert

The headliner of the night was Silversun Pickups, currently featuring Nikki Monninger on vocals/bass, Brian Aubert on guitar and lead vocals, Chris Guanlao on drums, and Joe Lester on keyboards and soundboard.

This alternative rock band from Los Angeles has been around for a while and seem to finally be getting the recognition they deserve. They released Better Nature last year and played a lot of songs off of that but did not forget about their three previous releases.

Each song they played was finished with a warm round of applause from the full house. The crowd was quiet throughout the actual songs as if to show their respect for the true musicianship that this band has. Silversun Pickups sounded like a carbon copy of their recordings when they played live. Each song was played with perfection by each of the four members and it was so tight that it was hard to believe it was just a recording.

Made Violent ended up missing their Minneapolis appearance. It is really a shame, because, as we've previously mentioned, this is an excellent band.
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THE STRUTS
at First Avenue
Wednesday, 05/04/16, 7:30pm ($16/$18)first-avenue.com

We’ve been following acclaimed UK rockers The Struts for a while now, and admitted that they weren’t quite ready to head their show at First Avenue in September 2015, because (at the time) the band only wanted to play a few songs for the US market. This included only seven songs (plus one encore), but they managed to fill out an hour. This is because of extended live version... plus singer Luke Spiller had three costume changes, making for a fun, entertaining show.

This time around, the band finally released their debut Everybody Wants and will be adding additional songs on their set. Recently, the band showcased a cover of The Vaccines’ “I Always Knew” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling”, combined with their single “Kiss This”.

Opening up the show will be our favorite Made Violent. We previously caught the trio (singer/bassist Joseph White, guitarist Rob Romano and drummer Justin Acee) in May 2015 and looked forward to their second appearance in October 2015.... but history would have it that their van broke down. When pressed about why they put up with the struggles of constant grinding and touring, Romano said, “We can’t wait to hop in our sh**y van and drive across the country to play for anyone and everyone. Two things really matter to us – making as much good music as we can, and touring as much as we can. We never want to stop doing this.”

Made Violent also finally released some Eps (Made Violent and Wasted Days) last year via Columbia Records/Startime International.

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!"
…

"Are you ready? Because you don't sound f****ing ready!," yelled Foals' singer Yannis Philippakis as he worked the crowd. Foals rocked hard at First Avenue in Minneapolis last night to a group of young British rock music fans. …

The co-headlining show of Foals and Silversun Pickups will be arriving to the Myth in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Foals recently scored their first #1 Alternative radio single with “Mountain At My Gates”, from their acclaimed fourth album What Went Down... so expect the crowd to go nuts when they play that song live. Find out why Q Magazine gave the band “Best Act in the World” in 2015.

It is pretty much all-Wizard World all weekend! W♥M will be bringing you extensive coverage of the three-day event - plus the traditional kick-off free event at the Mall of America on Thursday.

The Wizard World Comic Con’s “Kick Off the Con” event will take place at the Rotunda at 6pm and will feature
Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk), Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and James Marsters (Spike, from Buffy).

Saturday, 26 December 2015

What are you doing on V-Day? If you're a Sleater-Kinney fan, you'll be at this sold out show. According to my bad memories and physical ticket stubs, I've seen Sleater-Kinney at least three times, and have expressed sadness ...

We covered Trampled By Turtles' first ever Festival Palomino last year. It was such a great learning experience for us, and we had a great time... so much that it made it onto my top ten favorite shows from 2014 (out of …

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a musical on the life of songwriter Carole King, based on the biography written by Douglas McGrath. The musical has a residency at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis until the end of November. …

This year (2015), W♥M covered 346, which is an absolutely amazingly large number considering that we basically don't cover shows from December to February.

With so many shows, it's hard to just pick 15 shows to talk about... and I know there are a few that I feel bad about leaving off the list. I recommend looking over our list below and clicking on the shows you are most interested in reading and checking out for yourself.

This was my fourth time seeing Portland's Sleater-Kinney, and it was possibly my favorite. After "breaking up" in 2006, it was a bit of a surprise when they announced their reunion in October 2014 (with a new album No Cities to Love no less!). Of course, their entire 2015 North American show immediately sold out, but we were lucky enough to be there.... as were all the dedicated fans (who we haven't seen in quite a while).

We wrote, "I also wanted to mention that this wasn't just a SK reunion, but a reunion for all their fans. Personally speaking, I saw old friends I have not seen in nine years and it was all because SK came back to the music scene... so from the bottom of my heart, thank you Sleater-Kinney. "

Similar to Sleater-Kinney, beloved The Decemberists disappeared from the music scene in 2011.
We caught singer Colin Meloy solo in 2013, and although he did play some Decemberists songs, it just didn't feel the same. When the opportunity to see them live, after they announced an unexpected new album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, we jumped on board on the sold out show.

Their encore, with a giant whale, was a delight: "...then was a direct hit to the gullet, with their other folky mega-epic, the bouncy ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’ which stretched some twenty minutes. People were prompted to scream at a certain part ¾ of the way into the song, and the reaction was not unwarranted as a large cut-out profile of a whale ambled on stage to slowly eat each of the band members in a row, to the crowd’s shrieking delight."

My all-time favorite post-Britpop is Scottish band Belle & Sebastian. Although the band experienced some difficulties with their label (basically Jeepster Records didn't think they can grow beyond their cult-like status) and losing a few key band members (including sweet songstress Isobel Campbell), the band seemed to be in top form on this 2015 tour. They first hit the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, Australia, and eventually made their way to Minneapolis at Rock the Garden.

Personally speaking, as a diehard fan, I felt it wasn't their strongest performance in Minneapolis. They've been gone for 9 years from the city, and their song choices weren't what I wanted or expected. Still, despite all that, their two song finales were unfortgettable: "The two closing tracks, ‘The Boy With the Arab Strap’ and ‘I Didn't See It Coming’ were absolutely unforgettable. Murdoch walked on the front barrier and asked if anyone wanted to dance and encourage fans to come on stage. About thirty fans jumped to the stage and just had an absolute blast singing and dancing... and, yes, taking plenty of selfies."

We were lucky enough to have caught Sam Smith right before his road to stardom: winning six Grammy Awards (in Feb 2015) - including Record of the Year and Song of the Year - and Brit Award winner for British Breakthrough Act and Global Success.

We wrote, "With his career just starting (though he mentioned he’s had a manager since age 12) and a strong chance that he walks away with several Grammys next weekend, Sam Smith’s local debut was worth the wait, with likely several more appearances in the years ahead, to come."

The second annual Wizard World Minneapolis was a whole lot of fun. Unlike 2014's show, this year they had a few musical acts in conjunction to the comic book/geek fandom show: Critical Hit and our favorite Japanese Superhero band Peelander-Z. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, the Peelander-Z show was cut short.

As we reported, "After just 25 minutes, the venue cut off the band's instruments!! Everyone in the audience and the band looked incredibly puzzled by the shutdown. The fans were screaming "One more song! One more song!" and Pink replied, "If only we could, but they won't let us play!"

After Brian Ritchie sued singer Gordon Gano in 2007, The Violent Femmes broke up. It was only recently (2015) that they reformed, so we were more than happy to make that long drive to Treasure Island Casino in Red Wing, Minnesota, to see them. Embarrassingly enough, I thought this was my first time seeing VF, until I was reminded by a friend of mine that we had seen them in early 2000 at First Avenue. Suddenly, the memories flooded back! I will confess that I have a terrible memory.

Anyway, seeing VF was such fun! Everyone in the audience were singing to every word (expect for the two new songs), but I will also mention that I LOVE Colin Hay (from Men At Work) and he was definitely the highlight of the Barenaked Ladies' set. BNL aren't bad either, they were surprisingly a very entertaining band.

We wrote, "Say what you will about Canada's Barenaked Ladies, but they are a great live band. All those years touring, singer Ed Robertson has developed an amazing ability to randomly improvise some raps and songs. My personal favorite was the "Ring Ding Ding for Red Wing" rap, it's clear to me that they just actually thought of it while randomly shouting out rhymes."

We were quite impressed with Go 96.3's very first show at Aria in early March 2015 (featuring New Politics and Banks). They spared no expenses, and it showed! They would later go on to book Go Fest 2015 (featuring Cold War Kids and Matt & Kim on 07 August 2015) and Go Snow Show (featuring Metric and Silversun Pickups on 03-04 December 2015). In fact, all the Go Shows are nothing less than spectacular. We speculate that they are possibly just losing money (thanks to their affordable pricing of "$9.63" or FREE), but we also think that getting their brand name out is well worth it.

We wrote, "So, with little Snow outside, but plenty Show inside, consider the inaugural Go96.3 Snow Show a success with the hope that this becomes a bigger and better holiday tradition, for years ahead. "

Legendary Britpopster Blur is finally back in Australia, playing their first gig in 18 years in the country. The whole gang is back (including Graham Coxon), and we love the band so much, we travelled to Los Angeles and New York for Blur's final two US tour. It's hinted heavily that this was the band's final U.S.A. appearance. A sad reminder that for this megastar band in England... that they never really broke America.

We wrote, "I'll just say the show was bittersweet. Albarn plans to spend next year working on the band that did break the States, Gorillaz, and he has enough side projects to distract him from the band he first started out in. This may be their last concert in the country they couldn't break."

FFS is the special project of Franz Ferdinand and Sparks. The two bands recorded an album and as expected with these type of one album-only tour, they basically played the entire album. As an added bonus, selective songs from their respective catalog was also played, including the wildly popular FF's song "Take Me Out" (the entire audience was bouncing and singing along to this number).

Of all the places the band could have chosen to play, they surprisingly added Minneapolis to their limited first-ever US tour... and it was well worth it for fans who showed up to catch this unique performance.

As we reported, "Both bands collaborated to produce some of the most interesting pop songs on the FFS album. It's smart, it's catchy, it's fun, and it's uniquely FFS. While I do not think there will be a sequel in the future, this was, by far, the most interesting team-up we've seen in a while."

This is one of our favorite 2015 shows: Big Star's Third. Every show they do is different, mainly because they have different guests. With all these great guests, you would think they can easily screw up, but they were all surprisingly well-rehearsed and seemed to know their material and what they had to work with.

We concluded, "This show was such a massive pleasure to watch. Between a stage loaded with talent and music loaded with emotion, it was hard to walk away from this and not be inspired and heartened. Big Star created some of the most beautiful and timeless music of all time, the soundtrack to our lives. Stamey, Stringfellow and every single person who contributed to Wednesday night’s performance brought that soundtrack to life. "

This was our third time seeing The 1975, fifth time if you count their two promotional appearance at Cities 97 and the Mall of America... and we called it long ago: This band is going to be massive! Not only have they sold out every appearance in the Twin Cities, but ahead of their sophomore album, they've already announced a date at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. We think it's going to sell out, which very few bands have managed such a feat. We'll wait and see. If you need further proof that the band has made it - after we saw them at First Avenue, there were bootleg T-Shirt vendors!

As reported, "From the show’s early sell out, to the stage production, and the crowd’s intense reaction to every song, it was clear right away that the band has outgrown its club confines and is destined for bigger things (something we predicted when we first saw them too)."

We felt that the inaugural Festival Palomino last year was nothing short of perfect... however, the organizers (First Avenue and Trampled by Turtles) improved on perfection! We love the new setup and, based on these two successful shows, we're pretty sure they will be hard at work on a great 2016 Festival Palomino.

We praised, "If local festivals were racehorses, Festival Palomino is best in show. Again.

The Trampled by Turtles-curated festival, held again in the inside greens of the horse racetrack at Canterbury Park in the southwest suburb of Shakopee, triumphed once more in its sophomore year, as a prime example of a highly enjoyable, expertly-run day of music. "

This was an odd-pairing, but we were really excited about UK's The Adicts' very first Minneapolis show. They were just super-duper entertaining. The band clearly has their live show down to a T, incorporating various fun stage props, various costume changes, and choreographic dance routines. The only down side to these shows is that they are practically the same routine every night, so if this is your second or third time seeing them, it'll get old fast... but personally speaking, since it was their first Minneapolis show: we loved it.

Worth the price of admission: "If anything, The Adicts is one of the most entertaining bands touring right now. I've never seen so many stage prop used on stage, from pounds of confetti (used in streamers, umbrellas, hats, etc.) to Chinese take-out cartons (used for "Chinese Takeaway"), playing cards (used for "Joker in the Pack") to light-up plastic glass (used during "Who Spilt My Beer?") to various costume changes (hats, gloves, shirts) to beach balls, to stuffed monkeys (thrown into the audience). Although this may seem gimmicky, you can't ignore that this was a first-rate production and worth the price of admission. "

We're big fans of Weezer since 1994. Admittedly, the band's outgrown us, but we still have a soft spot for the nerdy band. Seeing them at Burgerama IV in Santa Ana was a treat, but because Rivers' dad came on stage to sing "Back to the Shack" with the band. We caught them again locally at Basilica Block Party, and it's probably our favorite Basilica show in recent memory.

The fans loved it, "As soon as the first few chords of ‘Hash Pipe’ were played, the audience immediately recognized it and started screaming and singing. Other big hits blocks included ‘Surf Wax America’, followed by ‘Island in the Sun’ with personalized "Minneapolis" lyrics, and ‘Beverly Hills’ (which did gangbuster in California, but surprisingly did really well in Minnesota as well)."

This one is still fresh in my mind, so it's one of my favorite music event I've attended. I can probably count on my hand the few plays and musicals I've attended (The King and I, Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, etc.), but watching Beautiful: The Carole King Musical was simply just magical. The seamless set changes, the constant costume changes (and one great "quick change" costumes), the great singing and music playing... they were just flawless! It probably helped that they act the same scene night after night for the last 200+ shows, but it was still pretty amazing to witness live. I have told people that it is like watching a movie, only it's completely live.

We concluded, "If you're a fan of live musical, you definitely will want to attend a show. It is a lot of fun, and the musical numbers will bring back a lot of wonderful memories."

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!"
…

The good news is that with their third album Glitterbug just recently released (April 13, 2015), the band is back in the USA on tour. They are stopping by the Varsity Theater on May 6th.
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Thanks to an El Niño weather season, there hasn’t yet been much Snow, but the musicals acts playing made for more than enough Show, at the first night of the inaugural Go 96.3 Snow Show, held at Northrop Auditorium.

The holiday show attempts to become a year-end tradition, in the same spirit as other eclectic-act year-end concerts in other major markets, and the local alternative rock FM station is well on its way to having the Snow Show do just that, having already introduced the GO Fest this summer at Target Field, and a series of exclusive Go Shows, held at smaller venues.

Here’s a rundown of the acts that played the first night of the two-night show:

MELANIE MARTINEZ

The relative newcomer that most know from NBC’s The Voice, opened the evening with a 25 min. five-song set culled from her debut, Cry Baby (Atlantic Records).

Wearing socks, a frilly pink Casper the Friendly Ghost sweater, and sporting dual colored hair, Martinez charmed the crowd (some of whom were still finding their seats) with seemingly spry and child-like but really sadder, undertoned songs like the title track and ‘Mrs. Potato Head’ which shines the light on beauty pressures with little girls that “pucker up their lips until they suffocate”. ‘Soap’ can be heard on the radio currently and she is everywhere next year, including a March return locally to Myth in Maplewood.

THE WOMBATS

The Wombats

photo: John

We’re unabashed fans of the Liverpudlian trio (Matthew Murphy, Dan Haggis, and Tord Øverland Knudsen) having discovered them with early single ‘Lost in the Post’ and covering them just about every time they’ve come to town. Latest album Glitterbug (Bright Antenna Records) came out in the Spring and features their trademark poppy songs while gaining them further momentum and mass appeal.

Their abbreviated 40 min. set was still fun, having to convert a seated crowd that mostly hadn’t heard of them (fitting then to start with ‘Give Me a Try’) and singer Murph did so with kind words, as bassist Knudsen (wearing a local Electric Fetus t-shirt) used the large stage to catapult manically from end to end.

Murph successfully got the crowd all standing for ‘Techno Fan' and the new album’s ‘Greek Tragedy’ was more than familiar to regular listeners of the sponsoring station. The bouncing ‘Let's Dance to Joy Division’ ended their short set, getting even the oldest and jaded in the crowd, moving.

METRIC

The Canadian four-piece (Emily Haines, James Shaw, Josh Winstead, and Joules Scott-Key) is out in promotion of their sixth full-length Pagans in Vegas (Metric Music Intl) and started their 55 min.with a dimly lit stage, odd spoken word introduction, and new song, ‘Lie Lie Lie’.

Singer Haines made an immediate impression, dressed mostly in black, wearing shorts, a floppy hat, and a showgirl jeweled peacock feather set of wings that made her also appear Christmas Tree-like. Longtime fans may have been disappointed that songs were mostly from the last three albums, but given the nature of the show, they wisely played to the strength of the more recent material.

Their set was well put together and paced, with Haines dancing at one point with a flowing yellow scarf held aloft by twin floor fans, as she moved between vocals, keys, and even guitar. A spacey and affirming spoken word intro led into ‘Synthetica’ and new album lead single, ’The Shade’ sounded more urgent played live.

Highlight was undoubtedly the closing and extended ‘Breathing Underwater’ lasting some eight minutes that started as an anthem and ended stripped to its essence, acoustic with the crowd clapping and singing back the chorus.

SILVERSUN PICKUPS

The Los Angeles foursome (Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao and Joe Lester) has been around since 2002, but is just starting this chapter of the band with their fourth full-length, September’s Better Nature (New Machine Recordings). The new material is slightly more synth based with less guitar, though the mix of new and old songs seemed to please the crowd, most of whom were there for the headliner.

The stage had been cleared out, leaving a sparse area for the band to take their places (as they seem to prefer) opening their 65 min. set with (sort-of) title track, ‘Cradle (Better Nature)’. Roughly half the set was new album material, though they did dial it back several times, including two songs from their 2006 debut.

New album single, ‘Nightlight’ added more punch live than on record, with singer Aubert avoiding so-called “rock talk” but admitted his enthusiasm in “making records just to play places like this” and promising to keep the secret of how great the area is, to live in. ‘Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)’ featured bassist Monninger (in a sparkly dress), who we missed at the band’s Rock the Garden appearance a few years ago, when she was off having twin girls

Drummer Guanlao got jibed about his NBA allegiance to the Lakers, though peace was made when it was reminded that the team was originally the Minneapolis Lakers. ‘Panic Switch’ got rave applause, while ‘Ragamuffin’ started with an Edge-like infinite guitar intro in front of a brooding bassline.

Silversun Pickups Setlist

Aubert echoed his whisperings of “spoilers” earlier in the set by leaking a key Game of Thrones fact for anyone that hadn’t seen it, before launching into the set and show-closing ‘Lazy Eye’, looking rambunctious and unapologetic with the band waving and leaving the stage to a standing ovation.

Operationally, the venue’s sound was impeccable, the result of a recent total building refurb and the radio staff came out between acts, to introduce bands and rave up the crowd.

Initial set times slowly fell by the wayside, with the Pickups taking the stage at 10:23 instead of their 9:40 posted start, but no one seemed to mind (unless you had to be at work extra early the day).

So, with little Snow outside, but plenty Show inside, consider the inaugural Go96.3 Snow Show a success with the hope that this becomes a bigger and better holiday tradition, for years ahead.

Thursday, 26 November 2015

As for Keep Shelly in Athens, they are a chillwave duo (RΠЯ and Sarah P) from Athens. I thought their name was funky, considering that there's no Shelly in the band, but apparently they were named after the city Kypseli …

Here are some shows taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area from December 1 to December 3, 2015.

Keep Shelly In Athens is back in Minneapolis this December 1st, supporting their second album Now I'm Ready (Friends of Friends). We previously caught the Greek band in October 2013 with Chad Valley, and described them as sounding like Portishead, but minus the trip-hop.

Since we last saw the band, Sarah P. stepped down as singer, and producer RΠЯ announced in 2014 that Myrtha will be taking her place. Their upcoming appearance will feature the new singer.

Chicago's G Herbo, formerly known as Lil Herb, will be stopping by the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis on December 2nd, as part of his "The #BLINK Tour", featuring his buddies Zuse, MobSquad Nard, $KINNY, and JonRay.

Recently G Herbo released his highly anticipated mixtape, Ballin Like I'm Kobe (Cinematic Music Group/150 Dream Team), and also collaborated with Chicago rapper Lil Bibby for their song "Get 2 Bussin".

Japanese noise fans, be sure to catch experimental tribal noise collective OOIOO next Thursday at the Walker Art Center. As you know, we are big fans of Boredoms, and co-founder and drummer Yoshimi P-We is band leader for OOIOO.

We have been following Boredoms and other Japanese bands and we can confirm that it's very rare to see Japanese bands on U.S. soil... so you'll want to be there next Thursday at the William and Nadine McGuire Theater.

Show up early to catch a special set by Minnesota-based Javanese musician Joko Sutrisno and his Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble.

How the Walker Art Center described the show:

Catch a rare US appearance by the enigmatic Japanese avant-tribal-noise-pop collective OOIOO (oh-oh-eye-oh-oh). Under the intrepid leadership of Yoshimi P-We (cofounder of Japanese band Boredoms and the inspiration behind the Flaming Lips’s album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots) the group has subverted expectations and warped perceptions of what constitutes pop and experimental music since the mid-1990s. Simply put, “It’s rugged, inspired, original music” (New York Times). OOIOO perform their Minnesota debut on Thursday, December 3, 8 pm in the William and Nadine McGuire Theater.

The concert opens with a special set by Minnesota-based Javanese musician Joko Sutrisno and his Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble.

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!"
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Anyroad, before we get to Death Cab for Cutie, I have to explain that I've seen the band before in 2001 at the 7th Street Entry for $5. People who live in Minnesota know that the 7th Street is a tiny venue.
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Wow, Go 96.3 continued to book some of the best shows in town, and all for such an affordable price. They often book these shows, undercharging them, all in an effort to promote brand awareness of the new radio station. I think it's working, as every time they book a show, we are talking about it... and this upcoming double-night "Go96's Snow Show '15" is no exception.

Black Friday deal: for a limited time 11/25 to 11/27, you can get $10 off if you enter "YELP" at checkout.

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Rock The Garden is an annual music festival organized by Walker Art Center and The Current 89.3. As far as I can tell, the popular music festival usually sells out as soon as it is announced to the public because the tickets …

The popular annual Summer music festival, Rock the Garden, just took place on Saturday in Minneapolis.

The outdoor festival had a rocky start with heavy, heavy rain. Dan Deacon started off schedule because of the weather, and he decided at the last minute to move his set to the smaller garage area.

LOW

photo from John

By the time Low took the stage, the sun started to come out through the clouds. I don't know if the band felt their time was limited (since they started a little late), or if they were protesting being put on the bill so early, or if they wanted to do something more of an art-piece, but they didn't play the conventional "rock" set. Instead, they did this slow jam song of "Do You Know How To Waltz?", a nearly thirty-minute song that left everyone in the audience confused. When the band finished, singer Alan Sparhawk only said something about how they're "not drones." Later on, Silversun Pickups and DJ Mark Wheat would comment how "insane" (in a loving way) Low was today.

BOB MOULD BAND

photo from John

Bob Mould was more along the line of what I wanted to see at Rock the Garden. He basically played half of Sugar's album Copper Blue, probably still fresh on their mind from their twentieth anniversary tour. The energetic set are lifted in track order from Copper Blue: "The Act We Act", "A Good Idea", "Changes", "Helpless", "Hoover Dam", and saving the best for last "If I Can't Change Your Mind".

Rounding out the rest of his set (after "Hoover Dam") were songs from his recent album, Silver Age, including "Star Machine", "The Descent", "Round the City Square", "Steam of Hercules", and "Keep Believing".

SILVERSUN PICKUPS

photo from John

Having spent many times stopping in Minneapolis at smaller venues, like the 7th Street Entry, Silversun Pickups' Brian Aubert was amazed at the massive crowd for Rock the Garden, that he said, "This is a big deal!" The band is currently touring in support of their 2012 album Neck of the Woods, but recent live shows featured singer/guitarist from The Happy Hollows, Sarah Negahdari, replaced regular bassist Nikki "mother of Dragons" Monninger.

As expected, the majority of their set is from Neck of the Woods ("Skin Graph", "Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)", "Busy Bees", "Mean Spirits", "Dots and Dashes (Enough Already)"), but, clearly the crowd's favorite song was their set closer, "Lazy Eye" from Carnavas.

Come on, baby, play me something, like, ‘Here Comes the Sun’

I've seen Metric twice (four times if you could Emily Haines solo or Broken Social Scene), so you know I love this little Canadian band. Their Rock the Garden's set was very similar to their show last year, complete with their display background and Emily Haine's short shorts and dance routine!

The majority of their set is from their last album, Synthetica ("Artificial Nocturne", "Youth Without Youth", "Speed The Collapse", "Dreams So Real", "Synthetica", and "Breathing Underwater"), which I'll have to say now that I've gotten a chance to listen to it, that I can really appreciate hearing them live now.

The last two were my favorite double-wammy from Fantasies: "Gold Guns Girls," and "Gimme Sympathy". "Sympathy" was done with just acoustic guitars from James Shaw with Emily Haines providing the vocals. By the end of the song, the entire audience was singing these words: "Come on, baby, play me something, like, 'Here Comes the Sun'."

Rock The Garden is an annual music festival organized by Walker Art Center and The Current 89.3. As far as I can tell, the popular music festival usually sells out as soon as it is announced to the public because the tickets are first offered to Walker and NPR members.

As usual, whoever the curator is for Rock The Garden does an excellent job in picking the bands. We've previously covered all those bands on the lineup for 2013, which is taking place Saturday, June 15, 2013.

Here are some news update on each of these bands (since it may have been a while since we wrote about them).

Dan Deacon will be back in the U.S. this summer to tour with Animal Collective. You can catch his interactive video called "Konono Ripoff No 1" over at dandeacon.com/konono.

Low is touring overseas at the moment, there a few dates with Mike Doughty in June, and their new music video "Just Make It Stop" can be seen on youtube.

As usual, Bob Mould is on tour, although no longer for the Copper Blue (Sugar) anniversary tour. He's just announced some new August dates here.

We actually haven't been keeping up with Silversun Pickups, since we covered them three years ago in Australia. The Los Angeles band just showed off their video for "Simmer" at the Onion's A/V Club.

I love Metric, having already seen them a few times in Minneapolis. I'm glad to see the Canadian band is headliner this year. If you can't get enough of singer Emily Haines, she's just joined FLEET4HEARme, a project where proceeds of jewelry
design collaborations go towards building a retrofitted recording studio in an orphanage with the organization HearMe. You can check out her designs at Fleet’s website.

We covered Rock the Vine last year, so I can tell you it's a pretty easy ride to Saint Croix Vineyards in Stillwater (just east of St Paul).

This year's Rock the Vine will take place on Saturday June 8, 2013. Depending on how much you paid for your admission ticket, they all include free bottled water and parking. Paying extra will get you handcrafted beer and wine! Unfortunately, this event is 21+ due to the alcohol.

I have to say that the free bottled water (including "Vitamin" drinks) is pretty awesome.

The event is organized by Rock the Cause, a nonprofit Minnesota company. Their whole goal is to help finance organizations like
Free Arts Minnesota, Minnesota AIDS Project, Open Arms of Minnesota, etc.